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+---- Thread: Solved HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? (/showthread.php?tid=339490)
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HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - Mark the Flâneur - 2019-01-17
My stack is Raspberry Pi, LibreELEC, Kodi. I am in the USA. I would like to add HDHR4-2US to my rig. I am completely confused. Does Kodi make this work by configuring through the Config/Setup screens? Does Kodi show what channels are available? Can I record those channels without paying a fee to SiliconDust with the HDHR4-2US? I cannot get a square answer from HdHomerun.
FWIW. The TV reception is from an antenna. Will I need more softeware (apps) to get this to work? The last time I tried Hdhomerun's tuner, I had to have tvheadend. I could never get it all to play together. Do I put the tvheadend software in the sd-card running LibreELEC/Kodi?
If I have not given enough info to get answers I apologize.
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - DarrenHill - 2019-01-17
If you just use the HDHR then you can watch the channels available through it in Kodi (via the HDHR PVR add-on) but you can't record stuff without paying for their premium service.
What you can indeed do is install the TVHeadEnd server add-on that you'll find in the LibreElec repo. You can then use that as a middle-man (HDHR-->TVH-->Kodi) and using that you can record to a connected drive or something on your network.
I have that exact set-up myself, with a HDHomerun Connect feeding my Pi3, which runs LibreElec plus a TVHeadend server. You then use the TVH PVR instead of the HDHR one in LibreElec and point it to the server (on localhost in my case, but it can be elsewhere if you want).
There are some other options (I think NextPVR can also record for free) but I've not tried it personally as TVH works fine for me.
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - bry - 2019-01-17
@Mark the Flâneur you can also use the unofficial client from this link to get access to the PVR service through the standard kodi pvr interface. https://github.com/djp952/pvr.hdhomerundvr/wiki
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - Mark the Flâneur - 2019-01-17
? I'm confused. I looked at the pvr.hdhomerundvr/wiki and Mr. Brehm hard work. If I understand, the download for Pi/LibreELEC/Kodi/tvheadend/hdhomerun must be:
armhf
His d/l page suggests the d/l is both not for and for the Pi? It is labeled armhf, but says it's only for Debian (which I guess isn't LibreELEC).
from: Github Downloads for Kodi
Raspberry Pi 2/3
Raspbian Operating Systems only 2
Platform Arch Version Download
armhf 1.3.9 zuki.pvr.hdhomerundvr-raspbian-armhf-krypton-1.3.9.6943.zip
1 Kodi Krypton on Android does not support automatic installation of binary addons via .ZIP-based addon package files. If root access to the device is available these packages can be installed manually. See Manual Installation on Android for additional details.
2 This package is only valid for Raspbian Operating Systems (Jessie, Stretch, etc.). For GNU Linux-based Kodi distributions on the Raspberry Pi such as LibreELEC or OSMC use an appropriate GNU Linux ARM package instead. This will typically be the 'armhf' Architecture variant.
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - bry - 2019-01-17
Looks like copy to folder on libreelec box and install from zip. I haven't tried on an rpi in a while
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - Mark the Flâneur - 2019-01-18
If I purchase the SiliconDust HdHomerun "Extend" (HDTC-2US-M) device, that does the transcoding and remuxing in it's hardware do I still need TVHeadend?
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - DarrenHill - 2019-01-18
If you want to do recording and not pay (if the option @bry mentioned above isn't useful on your set-up) then yes.
Recording is basically all you need TVHeadend (or equivalent) for. If you just want to view then you can use the HDHomerun direct.
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - GeoffG - 2019-01-18
If your intent is to record OTA broadcasts, why is the goal to find free your only objective? How do you intend scheduling recurring events? I used NXTPVR for a time, but you will find you need a subscription to Schedules Direct ($25) to get guide content. I don't find $25/yr too much to ask for this service. How much is your time worth over the course of a year to identify schedule and content updates on OTA programming? I subsequently migrated my recording engine to a NAS and HDHomeRun. Silicone charges $35/yr for the guide content. I find the GUI and overall experience using HDHomeRun to be easier and more reliable than my previous NXTPVR/Schedule Direct solution.
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - Mark the Flâneur - 2019-01-18
I don't care about scheduling. I do care about all the software/apps that have to play together now and into the future. I tend to record only when shows conflict in when they air. So I have to record one while I watch the other. By other, I mean that my TV and it's antenna show (broadcast?) say, for example, The Big Bang Theory and Gotham. Both start at 8pm here. I record Big Bang, and watch Gotham. I have the newspaper and it has a TV guide. I don't see an advantage to buying a TV guide, but, if it will help make the software/apps play nicely now and into the future, then I would spend the money.
My concern is how to make the output of a HDHomeRun device, do 2 things. 1. Translate the antenna signal into watchable TV. 2. Allow the watchable TV to be recorded for later playback. I want to do this in this manner: Raspberry Pi B+ (512 meg of dram), LibreELEC, and Kodi. This way so that I don't keep a computer running 24/7/365 only for television. I am guessing that the hdhomerun "Extend" model is best for this as it transcodes and remuxes the signals in hardware. The Pi is certainly light on power in that department. I was hoping to determine whether with the "Extend" model if I still need TVHeadend. Again, I'm guessing that I do. I'm not sure why the broadcast schedule is part of this, what it has to do with TVheadend. I'm knowledgeable enough to understand that the hardware isn't involved. So if I'm understanding you, I must have some "paid for" schedules in order for all the hardware/apps to work together?
By the bye. I have a HomeWorx PVR. It get's it's schedules OTA. It can get up to about 12 hours in advance most days. So, if it can get OTA schedules, must I have a paid service? (this is truly the most confusing part of Kodi/TVheadend/LibreELEC/Raspberry Pi/HDhomerun).
FWIW. I spent weeks of trying to piece this all information together. I have yet to find a writeup, tutorial, or howto that gives what to do, why to do it and how to do it in a step-by-step manner for my hardware combination.
Thnx for helping me clarify my questions.
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - bry - 2019-01-18
okay. if you purchase the silicondust pvr service for $35/year you get approx 2 weeks of guide data that you can use to schedule recordings to your own hardware and be done with it. this includes guide data, recording capabilities as well as channel images. if you purchase schedulesdirect you will have to configure your own backend service, apply the guide data xmltv file or login to schedulesdirect and configure recording.
For what its worth I have both a schedulesdirect account (no longer in use) and the silicondust pvr server. do you want a turn-key solution or do you want to get your hands slightly dirty depending on your technical capabilities?
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - Mark the Flâneur - 2019-01-18
bry:
Thanks for sticking with me in this. I don't want to get my hands dirty. And the $10 diff twixt SD and hdhomer ain't worth writing about.
That said, I surmise that I must have some sort of scheduling for the kludge of krap (good krap) to work together. I don't know what a pvr server is, but SilconDust has made sooo many models and products, I cannot grok them all.
Do I mark this post as solved?
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - bry - 2019-01-18
@Mark the Flâneur check the third item on the list https://www.silicondust.com/dvr-service/#how you would essentially have to run their DVR service on a storage device. if you are not interested in doing that they just announced newer models at CES that have built in storage that can act as an all-in-on tuner+storage solution to get you started. I do believe the space is limited.
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - MatthewLundberg - 2019-01-20
Don't get the Extend. The transcoding is not as good as you can get in post-processing (even in real time). It's not going to reduce the software requirements for recording at all. I have one, and used the transcoding feature a few times only, early on. I should have gotten the Connect instead. Well, another Connect instead as I have a couple of those. The only advantage to having an Extend, is that the DVR will use it only after all non-transcoding tuners are in use, so it's free for VLC or such. That's not much of an advantage. I might sell it on Ebay. Even used, they sell for more than they're worth.
I'm working on a plugin to schedule recordings for SD's DVR, similar in functionality to Mr. Brehm's but with fewer dependencies. It's still a few months from being a release candidate, but I'll get something out there. It will be usable for subscribers and non-subscribers alike, but nonsubscribers will only get real-time feeds direct from the tuners. Subscribers will be able to schedule and view recorded programs from within the PVR.
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - Mark the Flâneur - 2019-01-21
Beg pardon. Just for me to make certain. I have a Raspberry PI, LibreELEC, Kodi stack. You say the Extend won't benefit the foregoing? I have the Raspberry Pi B+ (512 meg of ram, 700 Hz on CPU). Should I upgrade the the Pi-3?
RE: HDHomerun SiliconDust and their pay services? - MatthewLundberg - 2019-01-21
(2019-01-21, 22:23)Mark the Flâneur Wrote: Beg pardon. Just for me to make certain. I have a Raspberry PI, LibreELEC, Kodi stack. You say the Extend won't benefit the foregoing? I have the Raspberry Pi B+ (512 meg of ram, 700 Hz on CPU). Should I upgrade the the Pi-3?Sorry, I missed that. The Extend may indeed help with your Pi (regardless of model) due to the h.264 decoder being built-in, and the MPEG2 decoder not.
I just tried it with VLC. On my 3B+, decoding a SD h.264 stream takes about 18% of the quad CPU. That's using the "heavy" profile. The same stream in MPEG2 takes about 33% CPU. Is yours a single core? If so, the MPEG2 stream is taking quite a bit more CPU than you have.
A HD stream crashes VLC every time for me, transcoded or not. I have't tried Kodi on a Pi, so I don't know if it would be better at it than VLC.
I assume that you can reduce that CPU usage by licensing the MPEG2 decoder in GPU. That's about $3/device, but it's keyed to the device serial number (not transferable to a different Pi).